Electronic Arts CEO Defends The Company’s Game Lineup

If one company’s name has been heard and became the center of attention in 2017 that is Electronic Arts. The company has created an uproar with their decisions on implementing microtransactions in their biggest titles, something that made us wonder whether or not they’ll be able to keep being the credible company we knew. Electronic Arts CEO has recently talked passionately about their current state and he seemed optimistic about the company’s future.

In yesterday’s EA quarterly earnings call, CEO Andrew Wilson took some time to defend the company’s lineup of games. When asked what they learned from their recent “failures”, EA CEO Andrew Wilson told investors that their biggest titles continue being resourceful for the company, titles like Battlefield 1 and FIFA. About the current state of the company, he stated:

So as I take a 50,000-foot view and look at the breadth and depth of our portfolio across all of the games we make—and if you look at 2017 in aggregate we were the highest-reviewed publisher across our entire portfolio—so there’s a lot of real goodness there. With all that said, that doesn’t mean we are perfect, and there are always learning opportunities for us, and we are a learning company. And as you look through our history over the last three or four years, there have been times we didn’t get it right. We have put our player-first commitment at the forefront of everything we do, and we have worked tirelessly to ensure that we are able to support and sustain them with the kind of experiences they expect from us.

Interestingly, Electronic Arts seems to be learning from past mistakes. The fact that Star Wars Battlefront 2 microtransactions are coming back with a different model as well as the fact that Anthem won’t implement EA’s matchmaking patents are good signs. Wilson says about the future of the efforts of the company:

So that has meant we have changed some beta processes, we have changed some testing processes, we have changed some of the ways we’ve designed, we have changed some of the ways we go to market. And as a company, we will always be learning, and always evolving, and always making the right changes in service of our players. But on balance, I think we’ve had a really, really strong run on sports and non-sports.

For what it’s worth, it’s good to see a publisher such as Electronic Arts learning from mistakes and actually listening to the community. However, Anthem, EA’s biggest upcoming title has been delayed so we could take it that the company will make some adjustments to it too? Let’s hope that one won’t cause the amount of trouble previous titles did.